Chapter 22
BONER
This sucks hairy donkey balls.
Harlow
"Who the—" Jules started, taking a step inside.
"Solomon Danforth," I said softly.
I hated my lack of surprise at seeing my father's old friend standing beside Archer's chair, a long knife in his hand. His thinned lips looked thinner, framed by his greying mustache and neat beard.
"Harlow, are you going to introduce me to your friends?" With the knife, he gestured toward Cass and Jules.
"After you tell me what the hell you're doing here," I said.
Okay I knew 'what.' The real question was how. How had he known to find us here?
Boner shouted out a warning, his words muffled by the duct tape. With an exaggerated movement, he nodded toward the doorway behind us.
I turned as someone familiar stepped into the apartment, a faint smile on her lips.
"Gina? What are you doing here?" I stepped back against Cass, standing side on. My gaze going from her to Solomon.
By the time I turned back to her, I understood what was going on.
"How long have you been working with him?" I asked, my tone laced with venom.
She stepped past us with confident strides, making her way to stand beside Solomon.
"Since before I worked for you," she said easily. "How else would he know to try to obtain your recipes? It would have been easier if you were more forthcoming." She inspected her nails and shrugged.
"If this is just about recipes—" I started. I'd give all of them to him if he'd walk out of here right now.
"It's not," Solomon said, interrupting with a curt tone. The same one he used on his staff. "Your employee here has been very helpful for keeping an eye on you. Profitable for my restaurant and beneficial for my associates."
"You're Eros." Cass looked like he might leap over one of the chairs and wrap his hands around Solomon's throat.
"Cassius Titmus," Solomon said. "And your brother, Julius."
"You already know who we are." Jules was even angrier than his brother. "I know what you did to our brother Augustus."
"I did nothing to him," Solomon said easily. "That was all Granger. He's dead, I presume?"
"Very dead," I agreed. I turned my attention to Gina. "Do you know what this man is? The things he does?"
"I know the things you do," she sneered. "You think you're better than him, but you're not. The gracious Harlow St. James, patron saint of the homeless, the abused. It's a facade."
"Yes, it is," I agreed. "Like your facade. Pretending to work for me while conspiring with him behind my back. He must have paid you well."
"Very well," she agreed.
"Which one of you killed Erin?" I asked. "Was it you, Solomon?"
Was she working with him as well? That would explain why she knew him. Why she let him into the restaurant.
Gina lifted her chin. "It was me. Stupid girl. She idolized you. I tried to get her to walk away, but she refused. Wouldn't take advice from her dear friend." She clicked her tongue.
"That was how Fairfield got photos from her," I said. "You sent them to him." What other photos had she passed along?
"You were supposed to figure out who they were from and back off, for her sake," Gina said. "But you didn't. You couldn't help yourself." Her tone was scathing.
"So you killed her." Could I get to her and strangle her before Solomon stabbed one of my boyfriends? Probably not. I'd have to bide my time. Again. That was becoming a theme this week. I preferred other themes, like Halloween, Christmas and an impromptu Buffy marathon.
"As a distraction," she said as if it was the most reasonable thing in the world. "Solomon and the men he works with, they aren't fucking around. They wanted to take care of you. All of you. All at once. And you made it so easy." She gestured around the apartment, taking in me and my four guys.
"Archer's face was caught on camera at Granger Fairfield's brownstone," she said.
"They've been looking for him. When I saw the footage, I knew exactly who he was.
When you found Erin, you all ran off here, like scared mice.
I was surprised you reopened the restaurant, but I kept an eye on you while Solomon and a couple of his men came here to deal with those two.
" She jerked her head toward Boner and Archer.
"It's me you want," I said softly.
Archer and Boner both struggled, shouting out their frustration.
"Harlow, no," Cass said, grabbing my wrist.
"It's all of you," Solomon said as a couple of thugs stepped through the door. Both looked like they could throw a fully grown cow across a busy street. "You're all problematic."
"Because you don't want this to get back to Hypnos and Zeus," I said.
Of course, he couldn't leave any witnesses. I should have done better at keeping them all out of this.
Anger flared in his eyes. "I've worked too hard to lose it all now."
"Why would you lose it?" I asked. "Are they that powerful they'd destroy you if you put a toe out of line? Or are they just that powerful compared to you?"
I was provoking him, but if we were all going to die, we should know why.
"They have empires to maintain," he said. "They'll kill anyone who makes waves."
"You should have picked your friends better," I told him. "In my world, friends don't kill their friends." I slid my accusing gaze to Gina.
She rolled her eyes.
I really had misjudged her. Of course I had. She’d pretended to be friends with me and Erin, and then she'd betrayed us both. I didn't usually kill women, but I'd make an exception for her.
Boner glared at her, clearly thinking the same thing. Not being able to talk must be driving him nuts. Whatever the situation, the man always had something to say. A joke to make. Now, all he could do was scowl and watch.
"I guess you won't be leaving any loose ends then," I remarked.
I watched as the words sank in, first with Solomon and then with Gina.
Her eyes widened and she stepped back. "I'm not—"
He was faster, grabbing her and pulling her in front of him, her back to his chest while he sliced the knife across her throat. The blade was soaked with her blood in a moment.
In the next, her body fell to the floor.
Boner sighed out his nose with disappointment. Not that she was dead, but that he wasn't the one to do it.
Archer let out a softer sigh, his gaze on the pool of blood now decorating his floor. No doubt he wished he could clean it up before it left a stain.
"Since you're going to kill us anyway, can you tell us who Hypnos and Zeus are?" I asked. It didn't hurt to try, right?
"My life wouldn't be worth living if I did," Solomon said. He didn't even have the grace to be apologetic about it.
Asshole.
"Your quality of life isn't worth shit," Jules snarled. "You deserve to have your balls ripped off and shoved down your throat."
"Accurate," I said with a small incline of my head. This man violated and murdered my sister. He deserved to be sliced apart, piece by piece.
"Tell me something," I said slowly. "Will Hypnos and Zeus be disappointed if you kill me? Won't they want to take part?"
Cass' grip tightened on my wrist, but I gave him a quick look.
"They don't know who you are," Solomon said, looking smug.
"Your father asked me to look out for you and I did.
It took a while to realize what you were up to, but I knew someone was coming after us.
It was Gina who first uncovered that you had an unusual source of meat.
Then, when Granger died and we discovered you were in the company of one of the perpetrators, it all fell into place. "
"Unusual source of meat?" Jules echoed. "Are you saying…" He sounded nauseated.
"That's exactly what I'm saying," Solomon said. "Harlow has some interesting tendencies."
"You were serving roast motherfucker?" Jules stared at me in disbelief.
"Of course not," I replied easily. "Not roast."
"That's…" He blinked a couple of times, trying to figure out what it was. "So we could actually feed this prick his balls?"
Apparently he didn't have as much problem with it as I would have expected. Good for him.
"We could," I agreed. We could overpower him, but not him and his thugs. Even if I had a weapon on me, they were too big for me to take on. Jules might stand a chance, but not the rest of us.
I couldn't stop the flame of despair that flickered to life inside my chest. It quickly threatened to burn me up from the inside.
"How are we going to do this?" I asked Solomon. "We're not going to stand here and let you slice our throats, one by one, like a row of pigs in the slaughterhouse."
Boner vigorously nodded his agreement.
Archer looked slightly less certain, and a lot less angry. Like always, he was calmly clinical. Had he given up already? I didn't want to think so.
"My friends will deal with you," Solomon said, referring to the thugs. "I'll take care of these two." He stepped around to the side of Archer, knife ready in his hand.
The thugs stepped closer to us, almost looking bored. As if we wouldn't be a match for them. They'd snap our necks in two seconds flat and head off a for a burger.
For a long time, I thought I might die a violent death, but I hadn't pictured this. I'd expected to go down with a knife in my hand. Possibly taking a chunk out of my attacker before they took me down.
Or maybe I'd be tossed off a fire escape in the middle of an epic boss fight. Preferably a moment after I stabbed them through the throat. I'd be gone, but they'd be gone with me.
In the back of my mind, I'd hoped to die of old age, having handed my restaurant down to someone like Erin.
I could have popped in now and again for a meal, and to make sure the place was running, but otherwise I'd spend my days wandering around the city, finding those places I didn't know existed.
Meeting new people and hanging out with my guys.
I could have taken up painting or something relaxing. Honed my knife throwing skills, perhaps. They were lacking at the best of times. Killing from a distance wasn't really my jam.
All of that would have been perfect. This? This was anything but perfect.
In fact, this was really, really disappointing.
I hadn't thought I'd die being strangled by a pair of meaty hands and indifferent eyes. Nothing more than a paid job. Neither of them was going to put any passion into killing me. After everything I'd been through and done, it was, frankly, insulting. I'd bet anything Boner felt the same way.
The others, they'd be pissed off they were about to die.
Oh, I was pissed off about that too. I would have given my life to save all of them. Even Gina. Even these two thugs.
"You're loose ends too, you know," I pointed out.
Solomon might want them dead after witnessing our deaths. Although, they weren't likely to talk, since they were about to commit murder. I reminded myself that hadn't saved Gina, but she was in it deeper than these two meatheads.
One of them grinned, showing a couple of missing teeth, and a few others broken. Either he used to play hockey, or he got into a lot of fights. Excuse me if I didn't care to ask which it was.
I took a couple of steps back, pushing Cass back behind me, but in the corner of my eye, I saw Solomon raise the blade to Archer's throat.
My heart broke.